Art Meets Film

Bringing farming under pressure to the screen

When we say ‘visual arts’, we include film too – particularly film that fits with our premise of ‘art that matters’: art that reveals hidden stories and lives, brings important realities into view, and can be completely mesmerising to look at.

In summer 2026, the Rural Peace Hub became a temporary film set for MacDonald, a new feature-length rural thriller written, directed and produced by Daniel Patrick Vaughan, with Newcastle-based independent production company House54.

Set entirely in the North East of England, MacDonald follows a family of farmers under such intense economic pressure that they’ll do anything to survive. The production team worked alongside local farmers to bring this story of rural life and pressure to the screen.

As Daniel explains:

“I’ve always wanted to film up here and, learning the pressures that land on the farming industry, I thought it would make the correct backdrop for a pressure cooker of a thriller.”

Why it belongs at the Rural Peace Hub

The film’s focus on farming, economic pressure and rural life connects naturally with the purpose of the Rural Peace Hub: a place where art, hospitality, dialogue and nature bring people together to imagine and create more just, resilient and sustainable futures.

The Hub exists to create space for people from different disciplines and backgrounds to engage with some of the pressing issues of our time – from climate change and social inequality to conflict, wellbeing and community resilience.

So although Arts Lab was not involved in making MacDonald, we were particularly interested to see the Hub become part of the process of telling a story rooted in the North East and in the realities facing people who live and work on the land.

From painting studio to film set

For several days, the Rural Peace Hub was transformed. Our painting studio became a photographer’s dark room, while spaces normally used for art-making, learning and gathering were temporarily occupied by a film crew of more than 30 people.

It was fascinating to witness the broad range of skills, technical expertise, creativity and sheer determination involved in making a feature film. Every second counts on an independent production, and the ability of such a large team to work together smoothly, efficiently and with good humour was impressive.

Then, almost as quickly as it had arrived, the whole operation disappeared. On the final day, everything was packed away in just a couple of hours – bish, bosh, bash – leaving the Rural Peace Hub ready to become an art studio again.

Another kind of creative collaboration

For Arts Lab, this was more than simply providing a film location. It was an opportunity to witness another form of collaborative making – the coming together of different creative disciplines, skills and perspectives around a story that matters.

The kindness and collaboration that filled the Rural Peace Hub throughout the production were particularly affirming. Seeing an independent North East company bring together such a committed team under Daniel Vaughan’s direction offered a fascinating glimpse into another form of creative practice: collective, highly skilled, pressured, resourceful and relentlessly focused on bringing an idea to life.

We were delighted to play a small part in that process – and to see the Rural Peace Hub temporarily transformed from a place for painting, dialogue and reflection into a place for filmmaking, before returning to its everyday life as a space for art, hospitality, dialogue and connection with the landscape.

Art Meets Film is about what happens when different forms of visual storytelling meet – and when places, people and creative practices are temporarily brought together to make something that can travel far beyond them.

Images:

1. The Rural Peace Hub becomes a film set
2. Our painting studio transformed into a photographer’s dark room
3. 32+ crew and cast working across the Hub
4. Behind the scenes: the technical craft of filmmaking
5. Final day of filming
6. And then, suddenly, it’s all gone, these bits of detritus from around the property, being the only evidence anyone was ever here.